Art Journal - page 1 - DANCE

Hello All,

I am so nervous about tonight's post, many of you will know that I have talked about starting an art journal....well here is my first ever attempt.....I have no idea what I think or if its any good...But I have thoroughly enjoyed doing it.

The page was based on the evening I spent at the "Brendon Cole - Live and Unjudged" show I went to see a few weeks ago...most of the journaling is secret and under the many layers of paint....I love that idea!!......if any of you that are more experienced at the whole art journaling thing happen to pop by my blog, I really would appreciate constructive criticism from you...it really is the only way I will learn. I was on Amazon last night and have ordered an Art Journaling book to learn a bit more.....if there are any books you would recommend then please let me know...

I have used stamps from "inkadinkado" (the swirl and the chandelier) also " penny Black" - for the music score

I have used Gesso & "Adirondack- Paint Daubers - sunset orange, sunshine yellow, lemonade& Watermelon "

I Have used "memento" ink

The main image was from "My craft studio - Simply silhouettes" I printed out...and used alight box to trace...and coloured over using a black copic marker....... I am not confident enough yet to use my own art work...maybe that will come, it has taken long enough just to get a paintbrush back in my hand.

As always thanks for looking, and I really would love to get your comments, good or bad on this one.

Hugs Juls

C&S Anniversary

I am needing quite a lot of Anniversary cards next month.....I have 4 family anniversarys in March, including my own.... 4 friends that have anniversarys too....also I have friends and family that will also be wanting me to make cards for the same people.....so pleanty to be getting on with.

My lovely bloggy friend Jane has resolved to use at least one of her older stamps at least once a week. I think that is a fab idea!!! I have so many stamps I could probably make a card every day of the year ans still not get through my collection!!! So I have used a rediscovered stamp " Stamps Happen - Blue Cafe" I have always loved this stamp....it is actually quite a large stamp but I have only used a small section of it.... Although I loved it I only ever used it pre copic days and so I found it difficult to create a crisp silhouette. I wanted to keep it simple so I have just stamped a little swirl in the background using "Memento - Rose Red" and another of my old stamps from "inkadinkado".... The happy anniversary sentiment it a little squint but hopefully does not look too bad.

Thanks for looking
Hugs Juls

WOYWW

Hello All,

Its ages since I have joined in a WOYWW....I really should join in more often because I really do love having a nosey at everyone else's space....I always think the photos of my craft space look quite dark, but it really is a nice light room, its just the desk that is dark.

I have been having an art journaling day today...Its something I really wanted to try this year and yet despite my best intentions it has not really happened...Also yesterday I had a bit of time and so made 5 cards....but I did not like anything I made so I thought if I had a bit of a change of direction for today it may get some creative juices flowing....who knows!!

I am a bit behind in my 365 day journal....so I did a bit of catching up on that (you can see it in the pink folder at the back of the wall)...also I need to get started on my march pages those are the purple and red sheets that are drying at the mo...I have not really used my acrylic paints much and I had a ball just sploshing colour everywhere!!!.....When I took art at school I was very neat and precise ..... which meant my art was ok, but never had much flare...I remember my art teacher once taking blue paint and just scribbling over my painting...In order that I would have to cover it.. and it meant I would be a bit freer.... I just thought if he could see me now randomly sloshing paint about he would smile......and it is soooooooooooooooooooo much fun!!!!!

The Little pad with the orange paint is the beginning of the art journal. The fabulous Kate did a fab article on secret Art Journaling in the last craft stamper magazine......so I have used that idea...I have loads of stuff written out that I am not really comfortable with people reading and I have just painted right over it!!!

I Know I really am waffling...but one more thing, I really have to laugh at that massive tub of gesso....I got some from the art shop, as it is used in so many techniques in the craft stamper magazine...I expected to buy a little tube but they were sold out....so they only had that tub.....lets hope I do actually take to art journaling!! LOL!!!

Don't forget to hop over to Julia and see her desk...

Thanks for looking
Hugs Juls

Sneak Peek

Hello All,

I have a sneak peek for you today...this is one of the fab new stamps from Mary Hall, that will be available soon at Funky kits As soon as I saw this image it reminded me of the nursery rhyme...teddy bears picnic!!

I used a make it crafty background...I printed out the flower a couple of times to create the embellishment....I have coloured everything with my copics....and I have distressed the edges with "Distress ink - Tumbled Glass"

This is my entry for:

Creative Cottage - Fab florals
Simon Says Stamp - Make your own embellishments
Totally papercrafts - do it with Digi's
Pile it on - childhood dreams

Thanks for looking
Hugs Juls

First Ever Craft Class

Hello All,

Hope you have all been enjoying a good weekend! I went to my first ever craft class yesterday....at paper boutique in Elgin...the home of Sugar Nellie!!

The Lovely Kate took the class, and these are the 3 cards we all made using some fabulous "woodware" stamps. I had treated a friend to the class, she has been through so much in the last year and is still going through it, so it was nice to have a lovely girly day and do some crafting.... and of course to meet some new crafters....we had a ball and I will certainly be doing this again....

The Fab Acetate birdcages swing because of the way they are fastened, so thank you Kate for showing us this fab technique!......I think you may be seeing this a lot on future cards, I think it may well become my new obsession!!!

Thanks for looking!!
Hugs Juls

Cooking with Tilda

Hello All,

I finally have had a play with my new "Polka Doodles - Paper Boutique Volume 3"....I have had this since the December and have not played with it yet....as soon as I saw this little recipe template I had this Tilda in mind, I thought they would work great together.

I noticed there were a few challenges with a food theme, so I thought it was a great opportunity to get it out and have a play!!!

I printed out the blank Template and have used my own papers & Colouring to build all the layers up. The papers are "Daisy D"... and I have used my copics....this is quite dimensional, although that doesn't really show up on the photo. I have added stitching and ribbon to make it look a bit more realistic.

This is my entry for:

Fussy and Fancy - Sweet treats
Stamptacular Sunday - Loving from the oven

A Cinderella Story....

Hello All,

Firstly apologies .... I have not been around in a while ... for a few days my little craft room was turned back into its orginal purpose, and became a spare room for visitors!!.....and work has been a bit busier, which I suppose is a good thing, but it means I am way behind in my commenting ... I will try best to catch up with you all as soon as possible.

I have made this card for friends that are celebrating thier wedding anniversary on Thursday...
I have used "Magnolia" "Paper Artsy" and "Kanban" stamps. The images have been coloured with copics. The background has been created with "Distress Ink - Tumbled Glass"....and I have used "Distress Ink - worn lipstick" on the hearts!!

This is my entry for:

Crafty Calender - Love
Crafters Companion - Romance
Kaboodle - Hearts & Flowers
Design Dollies - Love
Crafty Card Makers - Love
Papertake Weekly - Putting on the Glitz
City Crafter - Cute Stuff
Oldie but a Goodie - Add a Heart
Cute Card Thursday - Hearts and Flowers
Paperplay - Hearts and flowers/not valentine
Crafty catz - Love
Make it colourful - Shadow and Depth
Our Creative Corner - Cut it out
One Stop Craft - Love is in the air
Totally Gorjuss - Love
Lets Ink it Up - Romance

Thanks for looking
Hugs Juls

All Sassy Together

Hello All,

I loved my 2 Sassy Girls together in the previous post....and that gave me the idea of putting as many as I could together....I would liked to have done more than this but I was limited by the fact I wanted them to fit on a card...

This card was a Large square card from Craftwork cards...but I cut it down...I decided I didn't want too much space...I like how the picture turned out so I thought I would keep it as simple as possible, and just added a few embellies in the corner.

This is my entry for:

365 Cards - Teen Queen
Dutch Dare - Buttons
Craft Us Crazy - Anything Goes
Sew Many Cards - Anything Goes
Paper Sundaes - More than one image

Thanks for looking
Hugs Juls

Sassy Friends

Hello All,

How are you all? ..... well I knew it would happen .... I think I will become addicted to making these little books!!!....this time I have made a little card to go with it, so its a matching set to give to a friend.

I have used my fabulous sassy images...available here and they have been coloured with copic markers. The papers are "DCWV - Its all about the girls"...and I have finished off with a few little embellies from my stash,

This is my entry for:

Pile it on - bright and breezy
Dutch dare - Buttons (on the card)
Totally papercrafts - Friendship
papersundaes - 2 or more images
Sew many challenges - anything goes
All that Scraps Wednesday - anything goes

Thanks for looking
Hugs Juls

Mini Notes with Leanne Ellis

Hello All,

Hope you all had a lovely weekend...for those that asked I had a fabulous night last night...I went to a strictly show last year, I have to say that I enjoyed last nights show with Brendon Cole much more!!...such amazing talent, and I love the dresses, (that the girls worse) and Brendon comes across as a really nice guy, not the bad boy they paint on the Strictly shows...... LOVED IT!!!!

Anyway onto today's make...this is the final image that was sent to me in my DTg package...I do Love Leanne Ellis images, this one is called in a while..and you can buy it here I was delighted this one was in my little bundle!.....I was having a good nosey round the pound shop a few weeks ago and bought a few bits and pieces, I bought a little pack of 10 mini note pads for £1 and 8 mini pens for £1....so this little book has not cost me much more than 22p.....Bargain!!!

Its my first attempt at something like this, so please do not look to closely, the finishing is not brilliant, but I have learnt a lot.....I have made it all from paper and card from that scrap pile of mine......also I have used some Papermania magnets just to give the little belt thing a proper fastening....there is also a little pocket at the side of the notepad.....maybe to fit stamps in or something!!!....I did try to decorate the pen, but it actually looked worse by the time I had finished so I decided just to leave it......I can see myself becoming quite addicted to making these little note wallets.

Thanks for looking
Hugs Juls

Scrap Sunday

Hello All,

Hope you are all having a fab weekend

The Lovely Jules over at the house of hearts has set herself the challenge that on a Sunday everything she makes has to be from scraps!! I am always on a mission to reduce my scrap pile so I really wanted to join in.

Now Jules will only use a stamp if it is on Dp and not coloured...I have cheated slightly on this rule with my 2nd card....but she was stamped on a piece of scrap card .... I have also given myself the added challenge of using uninked stamps.... As many of you know that have set the challenge of making 100 things before I am allowed to treat myself to any new craft stash... ( I am now at 17 makes 83 to go)....part of the reason for this was to reduce my stash, but also to try and get round to using all those uninked stamps.......so I thought it would be fun to add that as an extra we challenge to my scrap Sunday! The stamps from today's cards are from a "Kanban" kit that I bought last year when it was a TSV on QVC.

The idea for the layout of the cards came from the Feb craft stamper mag, they had an article on "Clean Collage" and I wanted to try out.....and also a final mention the little covered buttons in the 2nd card are ones I made about 8 years ago when I was helping out a friend make her wedding dress.... these were left over...which I stashed away knowing I would find a use for them at some point!

I think that's enough waffle from me....and I also need to get ready to go out...i am off to the theatre tonight to watch "Brendon Cole - unjudged"....should be fun!

Thanks for looking!
Hugs Juls

Classy and Fabulous

Hello All,

I am sorry I have not been about much this week, I have been on a first aid course, which means I have had to work rather than play in the evenings.. so I hope to catch up with you all soon. trouble is its that that now when I am desperate to create, I feel my mojo has gone walkies .... I have tried a few things but nothing is really working for me.

There are so many challenges at the mo that have red as a theme....and as it is my ultimate favourite colour I had to make something to join in!!

I have used "Krafting Kimmie", "Paper Artsy" and "Kanban stamps to create this card" I have used "copics" and "sakura" gel pens to colour. I have stamped with "memento" black and "Brilliance" -rocket red & Graphite black.... and finally added some glitter, gems and flowers.

This is my entry for:

By The Cute and Girly - Red is all around
Papertake weekly - Anything goes with flowers
Crafts and me - Red
Moving Along with the times - Red
Paperplay - Stamp it out
Craft us Crazy - Anything goes

Thanks for looking
Hugs Juls

Simply Sassy

Hello All,

I have another Sugar Nellie DTg card for you today... I do love this image "Pillow Talk" available here however I am not quite sure I have done it justice with this card.....I am not quite happy with this card, but I am not sure why....maybe because It did not turn out the same as what was in my head.

I have also used my "Inkadinkado chandelier" stamp & "Hero Arts background script" both stamped in "Memento - rose red"... I have added some Micro Beads to the chandelier, a touch of ribbon and a few pearls

Thanks for Looking
Hugs Juls

Kathryn Wheel Challenge Jan/Feb

Hello All,

Well here are my Feb Pages of my art journal. I have to say that last month hopping around all the talented crafters that are joining in the Kathryn Wheel Challenge, I was so inspired by the fabulous mix of bright colours....and so I really wanted to be a bit braver with colour for this month....also you maybe thinking that this seems familiar, and yes I love the front cover of my inkspiration journal which you can see here, I wanted to do it again but on a slightly larger scale.

I have taken a load of leanne Ellis images and have masked them altogether...I then coloured with copics, and then painted over using twinkling H2'Os ( Pink Azalea, Key Lime, Sky Blue, Iridescent Gold & Yellow Rose)....and I used the Yellow Rose For the main background. For the squares I used "Big & Juicy - Happy Birthday" which I have braired onto card...and then chopped it up for the little squares.

This is my entry for

Crafty Card Makers - Just add water (twinkling H2'Os)
CES Challenges - Bright and Bold
Spoon Full Of Sugar - Photo inspiration

And here are my January pages....I did find that I have overcome the fear of my own handwriting, the more I wrote on this the more the page looked right...however I did say as this was my first attempt at art journaling I am sure I would look back on this page and cringe....I already think my feb page is 100 times better than this one.....hopefully I will keep improving as the year progresses!!........I just think it will look a funny mixed bag by the end of the year.

Thanks for looking
Hugs Juls